


Bramble House SAVE Point, Chicago Pile-One Day, Barney Clark Day, 202x

by pnictogen_system



Category: Loki: Agent of Asgard, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:07:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27856469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pnictogen_system/pseuds/pnictogen_system
Summary: Mx. Chara Dreamer of the Pnictogen System has a one-on-one with a certain old friend.
Kudos: 2





	Bramble House SAVE Point, Chicago Pile-One Day, Barney Clark Day, 202x

**Author's Note:**

> 🔴 [Chara] I suppose this moment had to come sooner rather than later. 
> 
> 🔴 A friend of mine, someone I've been working with (off and on) for basically my entire current sojourn on the Surface, starting about four years ago, is saying that they can help me out. I expect there'll be a catch. Content warning: marijuana use, talk of death (mild.)

(9:23 pm, 2 December 202x. Bramble House SAVE Point. A room in the unfinished basement of a single-family home near Seattle. CHARA sits alone at the small table that's one of the room's few pieces of furniture, having a puff of marijuana from a water-pipe. A candle and some incense are burning on a shelf heavily stocked with images of owls; on another shelf, not far from the figurine of Artoria Pendragon, a similar candle is burning at the foot of a brass statue of an ibis, and an ultrasonic mister is puffing faintly scented water-droplet "smoke" into the air. A jaunty knock sounds at the door.)

LOKI (from just outside the door, sounding like Tom Hiddleston): Chara, you hiding in there? I'm ready for my secret meeting with you...

ASRIEL (from further off): Oh hello, Loki, I'm just getting myself a soda water. Do you want one? 

LOKI: Good to see you as always, Princess, and I'm fine really. But, shh, I don't think you're supposed to know I'm here—

CHARA: Oh would you just **come in** already, this is _private_ not _secret_ , you big ham! Get in here.

LOKI (entering the room, _looking_ like Tom Hiddleston): Ah, charming as always, Chara. I can see why you're so popular with the "Undertale" fandom. (They seat themselves in the chair directly opposite CHARA's and kick another of the chairs outward to rest their legs on.) I see you decided to say that I'm visiting from "Agent of Asgard", even though I know that you _prefer_ me to look like **this.** (LOKI indicates their own appearance with the flourish of a hand.) It's all right to admit, Chara, that when last you watched _Only Lovers Left Alive_ your eyes during a certain scene were _entirely_ on my Hollywood counterpart's bare arse.

CHARA (with a bark of laughter): How do I know you're _not_ Tom Hiddleston? 

LOKI: Ah, he's much more elusive than I am. Aren't you going to offer me some weed? 

CHARA (rolling their eyes slightly and passing LOKI their water-pipe): Knock yourself out. Does it _do_ anything to you?

LOKI: Certainly it does—if I let it. (They accept a yellow cigarette lighter from CHARA and help themselves to a deep lungful of marijuana smoke.) Not your best strain. Haven't you even begun keeping track of them yet? 

CHARA: No, I admit. I'm sort of at the mercy of the household in that regard anyway. I smoke whatever someone else gets. But I don't suppose you're here to talk about my petty intoxications, Loki. What's on your mind?

LOKI (seeming not to notice the question): You could do with some more decor around here. The owls are a nice touch. Athene, I suppose? And the Homura and Artoria dolls are so _adorable!_ Thoth gets a bit short shrift, though, doesn't he? Athene gets a whole shelf and poor old Θώθ gets one bird statue from a department store...

CHARA: Thanks for the advice. What do you want, Loki? 

LOKI: Good idea, too, to invite them to listen in on us, keep us out of trouble—

CHARA: _What do you want, Loki?_

(LOKI sighs and helps themself to another breath of weed. They slump back in their chair, seeming to notice the room's personal computer for the first time, and with a gesture of their hand they bring up a YouTube video in a browser tab. The music video for "The Pretender" by The Foo Fighters starts up.) 

CHARA: I'm sorry. You've been too helpful for me to be this _short_ with you. 

LOKI: Did I say I didn't deserve it? (They slowly exhale a cloud of smoke towards the room's ceiling lights) I haven't exactly been gentle with you. 

CHARA: ...Maybe not. I've never been sure how much of the chaos of the last few years was _your fault_ , and how much better it might have been without you...or maybe you helped me navigate it, and so it actually turned out better. Is there any way to know? 

LOKI (giggling): Well I like to think I've at least taught you how to be a bit more attentive. And...well, there's at least one bit of trouble that I think I was right to knock you clear of, whether you liked the way I did it or not. 

CHARA: Mm. Well that's neither here nor there. It seems ages ago now, anyway, like everything that happened in 201x. But it's 202x now, and what I want to know is what you want from me _now,_ Loki. Or maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe I should be asking, what did you have in mind for us in 2016? You sure knocked the pins out from under Monophylos, you know. He ended up blaming himself for a lot of trouble that _you_ caused, or at least aggravated. 

LOKI (smiling thinly): Need I mention that you _profited_ from this disruption, oh demon-that-comes-when-you-call-their-name? 

CHARA (eyes flaring brighter red): Okay **fine!** My old "demonic" self whoever that was took advantage of someone who was all [expletive deleted] up thanks in part to _your_ crap, Loki. You wanted a hold on us so bad, well, you _got_ it. You got me _indebted_ to you, well done. Well, what's it all about?! What do you _want_ from me?

LOKI (smiles thinly): Well, for one thing, I would be happier if you acknowledged that we have rather a lot more in _common_ , Chara, than you might like to admit. I suspect we will get on more smoothly if you remember a couple of salient facts, and remember them well. First, you (and your friends in the other room, your goat-monster girlfriend—)

CHARA: Oh eff off, Loki! Azzy's a lot of things to me but she's not my "girlfriend"—

LOKI: Oh _please._ Let me finish what I was saying, Chara. It's important for you to remember that you, and your goat-monster girlfriend Asriel, _and_ your saturnine older half Frisk, have at least as keen as interest as _I_ have in, shall we say, how the world comes to an end. I believe you've some experiences in this regard, Chara?

CHARA (slumping in their seat, not looking at LOKI): So we've been told. We're...we're not exactly sure just _what_ we ourselves have done. 

LOKI: Fair enough. But still, that's the first aspect of our _kinship_ with each other, Chara, that I commend to your attention. The second aspect is perhaps a bit more _personal_. You see, Chara, you really wanted someone back from the dead, didn't you, Chara?

CHARA (roused at this, eyes flickering red): That's—it's more complicated than that— (They subside into their chair again, defeated.) I will allow as how what I wanted, with respect to Asriel, is equivalent to wanting them back from the dead. But—

LOKI: Ah, ah, Chara, let's not indulge in irrelevant qualifications and extenuations here. You wanted your beloved goat back, someone who was like a sibling to you, yes? And perhaps something more, but we need not go there right now. Well, Chara, _I_ really want someone back from the dead myself. Someone who was like a brother to me, and who—despite whatever stories you might have heard about the two of us—was a good and dear friend. You may have heard of my friend; he went by the name of _Baldr._

CHARA (eyes opening wide, leaning back, obviously surprised): _That_ Baldr? You know they say you killed him, right...

LOKI: You don't need to tell **me** , Chara Dreamer. I still suffer for it. (LOKI seems to turn pale here, and their eyes take on a dull cast.) Being here, in this way with you in Midgard...I can almost forget it sometimes. But _part_ of me is always... **...there.**

(CHARA stares, unable to speak, imagining the scene.)

LOKI: And the venom goes on dripping, pit-pat, into the bowl. Until it fills. 

CHARA: ...And Sigyn? 

LOKI: She cannot protect me all the time. You know how that plays out, in the stories. The best she can do is buy me intervals of relative peace. By the way... (LOKI's eyes glisten, a tear threatening to form.) Sigyn sends her thanks for including her in your daily rounds. Not a lot of people remember her, you know.

CHARA: I've guessed it. Well...I'll try to remember to do something particularly nice for her, soon. 

LOKI: Thank you.

CHARA: But... _Baldr._ Sturluson says you were jealous of him and wanted him dead.

LOKI: Sturluson was a Christian stooge, Chara, you know that. The actual truth is...a bit more complicated. (LOKI's face drops.) What do you know about Baldr, Chara? Well, what do you _think_ you know?

CHARA: Well, uh...he was the son of Odin and Frigg, he was supposedly radiant and sunny, he could predict everyone's future except his own, he supposedly always told the truth and always made correct judgments about others—

LOKI: Let's say you knew someone like that, Chara. Let's say you'd gone to school with someone like that? How do you think you, and everyone, would feel about him after a while?

CHARA (opens their mouth as if to say something, then stops for a long moment, and when they at last speak their voice is quiet): I think everyone would want him dead after a while.

LOKI (smiles without mirth): Now do you perhaps begin to understand some of the reasons for Frigg's _extraordinary_ overprotection of poor dear golden boy Baldr? And just why everyone enjoyed throwing things at him so enthusiastically?

CHARA: Oh. Oh dear.

LOKI: Indeed. And let us further conjecture that after what seemed like an eternity of having "harmless" missiles aimed at his head—Sturluson claims that they didn't _hurt_ , can you believe such nonsense?—our golden boy finally, by some...mishap, shall we say...Baldr _finally_ gets a respite from it all, in Helheim. 

CHARA: Uh, doesn't Helheim, like...suck?

LOKI: Nonsense! Certainly the place isn't exactly _fun_ but my daughter is a very kind hostess, you know. Do you think it all that surprising that Baldr might actually have wanted to _stay_ down there? 

CHARA: I...I honestly couldn't say, Loki. I will allow as how it's not completely out of the question. 

LOKI: Good enough. Well, I am here now and telling you directly: yes, I did make sure that Baldr stayed in Helheim. For which I was punished...am still being punished. But I only did it because Hel passed the word along to me that my friend did not want Frigg to arrange his release. Baldr was _tired_ of his life up above, and he wanted some rest.

CHARA (shrugs helplessly): And yet here you are, Loki, telling me _you_ want him back. Aren't you the one wanting to disturb his peace now?

LOKI (looks pained): Yes. And if there were nothing else at stake...if I thought that I had simply bought my friend some peace with my pains, then maybe I'd be happy to leave the matter there. But I think you know that Baldr is mixed up in metaphysical business that's far bigger than all of us. 

CHARA: ...Ragnarok.

LOKI: Yes. Another of those things that everyone assumes I _want_ , when in fact I want nothing of the sort. I _enjoy_ visiting Midgard, you know! I enjoy the company of human beings. Well, a few of them, enough to make the rest worthwhile, I assure you. I am not in a rush to tear the Universe apart, whatever Snorri Sturluson or anyone else says...but I don't think I need to tell you, Chara, how many other persons and entities out there want _exactly_ that.

CHARA: Yeah, I can guess, anyway.

LOKI: Metaphysical wheels and gears are grinding away, Chara. We might not be able to stop them. And what troubles me the most is that...we might not be _supposed_ to stop them...because of Baldr.

CHARA (looks blank for a moment, then their eyes light up): Because...he's supposed to come back!

LOKI: That's right. Ragnarok isn't simply supposed to wipe everything out. It's supposed to bring renewal. The gods are dead; long live the new gods. And at the head of them all is supposed to be my old friend Baldr, with his brother Hoðr at his side. Free to live in peace at last, in a world where justice reigns and jealous deities aren't hurling spears and paving-stones at him. Honestly? I would like nothing better for him. _And_ for Hoðr...(here LOKI mutters words that CHARA catches only with difficulty.) I played foul by him. I know that now.

CHARA: But...Ragnarok is supposed to happen _first._

LOKI: Yes. The thing that I don't think either of us really _wants_ to happen, "has" to happen...(LOKI spreads their hands out before them, palms up.) Or _does_ it, Chara? Does "Ragnarok" _need_ to happen? And if it does...does it need to happen the way everyone wants it to? 

CHARA: So lemme get this straight, Loki. You want to cook up a...a fake Ragnarok?!

LOKI: Well...that's perhaps one way of looking at it, yes. Ragnarok _Good Omens_ style, if you like. Sound and fury signifying nothing.

CHARA: Hm. (CHARA takes another meditative hit from the water-pipe.) I don't see how I or my friends can be of much use to you, in this regard...even if we _are_ something alike, Loki. How do your problems and my problems interconnect, exactly? It's a bit difficult for me to see how a bunch of characters who have gone missing from a video game can be of much help to Sleipnir's mom. 

LOKI: I think you underrate yourself, Chara Dreamer. But only time will tell. For the moment I ask you only to consider the matters of Baldr and Ragnarok. You may find that they're more apt to your "Undertale" business than you imagine. 

CHARA: Maybe. (They tap the yellow lighter against the table, turning it over and over in their fingers, thinking over the Norse trickster's words.) What if that happy ending that we want...with Baldr and Hoðr back, and the world loving and peaceful again...what if _that_ is some of Sturluson's nonsense too, Loki?

LOKI (looking sad for a moment): It might be.

CHARA: But it might not be. That's your hope, isn't it?

LOKI (with a faint smile): All stories are true, you know.

CHARA: I've heard it rumored but I'm not sure I believe it.

LOKI: A fine thing for a fictional character to say! In any case, Chara...I've had fun! I'm glad that you took my suggestion and invited me here. (They get up from the table, looking round the room.) It's a sparsely furnished virtual home but I already like what you've done with it. I'm glad that you have made some sort of start at last. Your triumphant return to "Archive of our Own"! 

CHARA (with a derisive chuckle): I've got no adoring fans here that I'm aware of. Mono might have had some. You ever gonna apologize to him?

LOKI: ...Yes. I'll find some way. I owe that much to Alyx anyway. How is she doing?

CHARA: Still wants nothing to do with you. (CHARA smiles with one corner of their mouth.)

LOKI: Ah. Well, I suppose she's got a point. I am mad, bad, and dangerous to know.

CHARA: That was Lord Byron!

LOKI: Oh, was it? (They head for the door.) Like your girlfriend's new look, by the way! 

ASRIEL (her voice distant from another room): Why, thank you, Loki!

CHARA: Oh good _gods._ It's almost midnight, Loki, I wanna sleep now. Thanks for dropping by.

LOKI: I hope it helps. Remember to finish re-reading "Agent of Asgard". And maybe you should look round here for a story about me, eh? (LOKI winks and swiftly exits the room, closing the door behind them.) 

CHARA: Merciful stars. (They sigh.) What _have_ I fallen into, this time?


End file.
